What are 'Gigantic jets', that illuminated Himalayan skies in rare celestial event?

Gigantic jets are a rare and powerful type of lightning that can extend from the top of a cloud to the edge of space. (Image credit: Li Xuanhua/NASA APOD)

A series of gigantic jets were captured shooting up from a thunderstorm over the Himalayan Mountains, straddling the border between China and Bhutan in a rare and breath-taking event. This celestial event, which took place last week, was immortalised in a composite image by NASA that shows four of these lightning discharges occurring within minutes of each other.

Gigantic jets are a rare and powerful type of lightning that can extend from the top of a cloud to the edge of space. They are a relatively recent discovery in the field of atmospheric phenomena, having been documented only in the 21st century.

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Unlike the more familiar cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning, gigantic jets bridge the gap between thunderstorms and the Earth’s ionosphere, soaring high above the storm clouds.

The image, designated as NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day for June 18, shows the beauty and complexity of these jets. The lower portions of gigantic jets resemble blue jets, which are cloud-to-above lightning strikes, while their upper sections are akin to red sprites that extend to the upper atmosphere.

Despite ongoing research, the precise mechanisms and triggers behind these magnificent jets remain elusive. What is understood, however, is their role in balancing the electrical charge between different layers of the atmosphere.

Observing such phenomena typically requires viewing a distant yet powerful thunderstorm from a clear vantage point.

A few years ago, while flying from Munich to Singapore, a plane passenger took images of a passing lightning storm and caught something unexpected: gigantic jet lightning seen beyond the aircraft’s wing. The jet was captured on a single 3.2-second exposure above Bhadrak, India, in 2018.